Cheng Chih-lung (born 29 August 1969) is a Taiwanese basketball coach and retired basketball player, as well as a former politician as a member of the Legislative Yuan of the Republic of China. Cheng played small forward for the Chinese Taipei national basketball team and started as shooting guard for his professional clubs in Taiwan's Chinese Basketball Alliance and mainland China's Chinese Basketball Association mostly in the last decade of the 20th century. During his prime, he was widely recognized as one of the best offensive players in Asia. He was also the first Taiwanese player to play in the Chinese Basketball Association. After a brief but controversy-packed political career following his retirement as a player in 2001, Cheng has returned to basketball to coach in Taiwan's Super Basketball League since 2007. (He also coached in China's National Basketball League in 2012.) Early life Cheng's biological father returned to the United States before Cheng was born. He was raised by his mother, of Amis descent. Playing career As a member of the Chinese Taipei youth team, teen-aged Cheng Chih-lung was two-time scoring champion in the FIBA's Under-18 Asian Championship. At the age of 19, he became the then-youngest player on the Chinese Taipei adult team and helped his team to a third-place finish in FIBA Asia Championship 1989—Taiwan's best record in the tournament since its resumption of international sports participation in the mid-1980s. From then through 1999, Cheng played for the national team in various international tournaments and helped set the team's best records in all major tournaments in the region including winning Taiwan's first gold medal in men's basketball in the 1997 East Asian Games. As the representative star player of Taiwan, Cheng was selected to All-Tournament Team for the William Jones Cup international tournament for numerous times and to the FIBA Asian All-Star roster in 1998. Initially nicknamed "Doctor" after Dr. J by his American coach, John Nealon, due to his jumping ability, Cheng Chih-lung subsequently derived another nickname, "the Loach-Dragon" (泥鰍龍), from his shrewd playing style. A stable mid- and long range shooter, Cheng was also acclaimed for his smart offensive running, crafty moves, and great body coordination in the air that enabled him to "bore" through the defense like a slippery dojo loach and score from various angles and distances. As a Hung Kuo Elephant, he became the then-highest-paid basketball player in Taiwan and was the